Adsorption, isotherms

The model of Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) assumes that the enthalpy of adsorption for the first monolayer of molecules is AHads and for all additional layers Ai-fy. Furthermore, it assumes that all layers are in equilibrium. With the following definitions  

In order to estimate the quantity of adsorbate in the monolayer, the density of the liquid adsorbate and the volume of the molecule must be used. If the liquid is assumed to consist of a close-packed fee structure, the minimum surface area for 

1 mol of adsorbate in a monolayer on a substrate can be calculated from the density of the liquid pHq and the molecular mass of the adsorbate M ds- 

To study adsorption, in practice, the relationship between the amount adsorbed, a, and the equilibrium pressure, / , at constant temperature, T, is measured in order to get an adsorption isotherm [1] 

For separation by adsorption, adsorption capacity is often the most important parameter because it determines how much adsorbent is required to accomplish a certain task. For the adsorption of a variety of antibiotics, steroids, and hormons, the adsorption isotherm relating the amount of solute bound to solid and that in solvent can be described by the empirical Freundlich equation. 

Another correlation often employed to correlate adsorption data for proteins is the Langmuir isotherm, 

1 Since the concentration in the adsorbent phase Y is expressed as a solute-free basis, the concentration in the diluent phase X is also expressed on a solute-free basis for uniformity. However, for dilute solutions, the difference between X (mass fraction on a solute-free basis) and x (mass fraction in solution including solute) is negligible. 

If the temperature is kept constant, then for a given adsorbent-adsorbate system x/m depends on the equilibrium pressure, and the equilibrium can be represented as 

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Langmuir adsorption isotherm A theoretical equation, derived from the kinetic theory of gases, which relates the amount of gas adsorbed at a plane solid surface to the pressure of gas in equilibrium with the surface. In the derivation it is assumed that the adsorption is restricted to a monolayer at the surface, which is considered to be energetically uniform. It is also assumed that there is no interaction between the adsorbed species. The equation shows that at a gas pressure, p, the fraction, 0, of the surface covered by the adsorbate is given by ... 

The data could be expressed equally well in terms of F versus P, or in the form of the conventional adsorption isotherm plot, as shown in Fig. Ill-18. The appearance of these isotherms is discussed in Section X-6A. The Gibbs equation thus provides a connection between adsorption isotherms and two-dimensional equations of state. For example, Eq. III-57 corresponds to the adsorption isotherm... 

Fig. ni-18. Adsorption isotherm for n-pentane and -octane at 15°C. The dotted curve shows the hypothetical isotherm above P/Pq = 1, and the arrows mark the T values corresponding to a monolayer. (From Refs. 128, 129.)... 

An adsorption isotherm known as the Temkin equation [149] has the form tt = ofF /F where a is a constant and F" is the limiting surface excess for a close-packed... 

Some data obtained by Nicholas et al. [150] are given in Table III-3, for the surface tension of mercury at 25°C in contact with various pressures of water vapor. Calculate the adsorption isotherm for water on mercury, and plot it as F versus P. 

Still another manifestation of mixed-film formation is the absorption of organic vapors by films. Stearic acid monolayers strongly absorb hexane up to a limiting ratio of 1 1 [272], and data reminiscent of adsorption isotherms for gases on solids are obtained, with the surface density of the monolayer constituting an added variable. 

There are complexities. The wetting of carbon blacks is very dependent on the degree of surface oxidation Healey et al. [19] found that q mm in water varied with the fraction of hydrophilic sites as determined by water adsorption isotherms. In the case of oxides such as Ti02 and Si02, can vary considerably with pretreatment and with the specific surface area [17, 20, 21]. Morimoto and co-workers report a considerable variation in q mm of ZnO with the degree of heat treatment (see Ref. 22). 

The present discussion is restricted to an introductory demonstration of how, in principle, adsorption data may be employed to determine changes in the solid-gas interfacial free energy. A typical adsorption isotherm (of the physical adsorption type) is shown in Fig. X-1. In this figure, the amount adsorbed per gram of powdered quartz is plotted against P/F, where P is the pressure of the adsorbate vapor and P is the vapor pressure of the pure liquid adsorbate. 

Fig. X-1. Adsorption isotherms for n-octane, n-propanol, and n-butanol on a powdered quartz of specific surface area 0.033 m /g at 30°C. (From Ref. 23.)...

A somewhat subtle point of difficulty is the following. Adsorption isotherms are quite often entirely reversible in that adsorption and desorption curves are identical. On the other hand, the solid will not generally be an equilibrium crystal and, in fact, will often have quite a heterogeneous surface. The quantities ys and ysv are therefore not very well defined as separate quantities. It seems preferable to regard t, which is well defined in the case of reversible adsorption, as simply the change in interfacial free energy and to leave its further identification to treatments accepted as modelistic. 

A rather different approach is to investigate possible adsorption isotherm forms for use with Eq. X-43. As is discussed more fully in Section XVII-7, in about 1914 Polanyi proposed that adsorption be treated as a compression of a vapor in the potential held U x) of the solid with sufficient compression, condensation to liquid adsorbate would occur. If Uq(x) denotes the held necessary for this, then... 

The adsorption isotherm corresponding to Eq. X-51 is of the shape shown in Fig. X-1, that is, it cannot explain contact angle phenomena. The ability of a liquid him to coexist with bulk liquid in a contact angle situation suggests that the him structure has been modihed by the solid and is different from that of the liquid, and in an enmirical way, this modihed structure corresponds to an effective vapor pressure F , F representing the vapor pressure that bulk liquid would have were its structure that of the... 

It is not necessary to limit the model to idealized sites Everett [5] has extended the treatment by incorporating surface activity coefficients as corrections to N and N2. The adsorption enthalpy can be calculated from the temperature dependence of the adsorption isotherm [6]. If the solution is taken to be ideal, then... 

Most surfaces are heterogeneous so that in Eq. XI-6 will vary with 6. The experimentally observed adsorption isotherm may then be written... 

As discussed in Chapter III, the progression in adsoiptivities along a homologous series can be understood in terms of a constant increment of work of adsorption with each additional CH2 group. This is seen in self-assembling monolayers discussed in Section XI-IB. The film pressure r may be calculated from the adsorption isotherm by means of Eq. XI-7 as modified for adsorption from dilute solution ... 

Polymers typically exhibit a high-affinity adsorption isotherm as shown in Fig. XI-5 here the adsorbed amount increases very rapidly with bulk concentration and then becomes practically independent of concentration. 

Fig. XI-5. Adsorption isotherm from Ref. 61 for polystyrene on chrome in cyclohexane at the polymer theta condition. The polymer molecular weights x 10 are (-0) 11, (O) 67, (( )) 242, (( )) 762, and (O) 1340. Note that all the isotherms have a high-affinity form except for the two lowest molecular weights.

This type of behavior can cause irreversibility in the adsorption isotherm as well as immobility on the surface [106]. 

It is important to note that the experimentally defined or apparent adsorption no AN 2/, while it gives F, does not give the amount of component 2 in the adsorbed layer Only in dilute solution where N 2 0 and = 1 is this true. The adsorption isotherm, F plotted against N2, is thus a composite isotherm or, as it is sometimes called, the isotherm of composition change. 

Equation XI-27 shows that F can be viewed as related to the difference between the individual adsorption isotherms of components 1 and 2. Figure XI-9 [140] shows the composite isotherms resulting from various combinations of individual ones. Note in particular Fig. XI-9a, which shows that even in the absence of adsorption of component 1, that of component 2 must go through a maximum (due to the N[ factor in Eq. XI-27), and that in all other cases the apparent adsorption of component 2 will be negative in concentrated solution. 

Fig. XI-11. Relation of adsorption from binary liquid mixtures to the separate vapor pressure adsorption isotherms, system ethanol-benzene-charcoal (n) separate mixed-vapor isotherms (b) calculated and observed adsorption from liquid mixtures. (From Ref. 143.)...

There is a number of very pleasing and instructive relationships between adsorption from a binary solution at the solid-solution interface and that at the solution-vapor and the solid-vapor interfaces. The subject is sufficiently specialized, however, that the reader is referred to the general references and, in particular, to Ref. 153. Finally, some studies on the effect of high pressure (up to several thousand atmospheres) on binary adsorption isotherms have been reported [154]. Quite appreciable effects were found, indicating that significant partial molal volume changes may occur on adsorption. 

Fig. XI-13. Adsorption isotherms for SNBS (sodium p-3-nonylbenzene sulfonate) (pH 4.1) and DPC (dodecyl pyridinium chloride) (pH 8.0) on mtile at approximately the same surface potential and NaCl concentration of O.OlAf showing the four regimes of surfactant adsorption behavior, from Ref. 175. [Reprinted with permission from Luuk K. Koopal, Ellen M. Lee, and Marcel R. Bohmer, J. Colloid Interface Science, 170, 85-97 (1995). Copyright Academic Press.]...

An adsorbed film obeys a modified Amagat equation of state, t(t = qkT (see Eq. ni-107). Show that this corresponds to a Freundlich adsorption isotherm (Eq. XI-12) and comment on the situation. 

Fig. XIII-15. Adsorption isotherm for sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate on cotton. Curve I, 30°C curve II, 0°C. (From Ref. 64.)...

As stated in the introduction to the previous chapter, adsorption is described phenomenologically in terms of an empirical adsorption function n = f(P, T) where n is the amount adsorbed. As a matter of experimental convenience, one usually determines the adsorption isotherm n = fr(P), in a detailed study, this is done for several temperatures. Figure XVII-1 displays some of the extensive data of Drain and Morrison [1]. It is fairly common in physical adsorption systems for the low-pressure data to suggest that a limiting adsorption is being reached, as in Fig. XVII-la, but for continued further adsorption to occur at pressures approaching the saturation or condensation pressure (which would be close to 1 atm for N2 at 75 K), as in Fig. XVII-Ih. 

The following several sections deal with various theories or models for adsorption. It turns out that not only is the adsorption isotherm the most convenient form in which to obtain and plot experimental data, but it is also the form in which theoretical treatments are most easily developed. One of the first demands of a theory for adsorption then, is that it give an experimentally correct adsorption isotherm. Later, it is shown that this test is insufficient and that a more sensitive test of the various models requires a consideration of how the energy and entropy of adsorption vary with the amount adsorbed. Nowadays, a further expectation is that the model not violate the molecular picture revealed by surface diffraction, microscopy, and spectroscopy data, see Chapter VIII and Section XVIII-2 Steele [8] discusses this picture with particular reference to physical adsorption. 

The preceding derivation, being based on a definite mechanical picture, is easy to follow intuitively kinetic derivations of an equilibrium relationship suffer from a common disadvantage, namely, that they usually assume more than is necessary. It is quite possible to obtain the Langmuir equation (as well as other adsorption isotherm equations) from examination of the statistical thermodynamics of the two states involved. 

Adsorption isotherms conventionally have been determined by means of a vacuum line system whereby pressure-volume measurements are made before and after admitting the adsorbate gas to the sample. For some recent experimental papers, see Refs. 24 and 25. 

Adsorption isotherms are by no means all of the Langmuir type as to shape, and Brunauer [34] considered that there are five principal forms, as illustrated in Fig. XVII-7. TVpe I is the Langmuir type, roughly characterized by a monotonic approach to a limiting adsorption at presumably corresponds to a complete monolayer. Type II is very common in the case of physical adsorption... 

Fig. XVII-7. Brunauer s five types of adsorption isotherms. (From Ref. 34.)...

The BET equation filled an annoying gap in the interpretation of adsorption isotherms, and at the time of its appearance in 1938 it was also hailed as a general method for obtaining surface areas from adsorption data. The equation can be put in the form... 

A. Film Pressure-Area Diagrams from Adsorption Isotherms... 

Gregg [52] (see also Ref. 48) has surveyed the types of force-area equations obtainable from adsorption isotherms. 

B. Adsorption Isotherms from Two-Dimensional Equations of State... 

It must be remembered that, in general, the constants a and b of the van der Waals equation depend on volume and on temperature. Thus a number of variants are possible, and some of these and the corresponding adsorption isotherms are given in Table XVII-2. All of them lead to rather complex adsorption equations, but the general appearance of the family of isotherms from any one of them is as illustrated in Fig. XVII-11. The dotted line in the figure represents the presumed actual course of that particular isotherm and corresponds to a two-dimensional condensation from gas to liquid. Notice the general similarity to the plots of the Langmuir plus the lateral interaction equation shown in Fig. XVII-4. 

Equation XVII-78 turns out to ht type II adsorption isotherms quite well—generally better than does the BET equation. Furthermore, the exact form of the potential function is not very critical if an inverse square dependence is used, the ht tends to be about as good as with the inverse-cube law, and the equation now resembles that for a condensed him in Table XVII-2. Here again, quite similar equations have resulted from deductions based on rather different models. 

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